Sport

Jack hopes to come up trumps for Yorkshire

JACK Leaning is determined not to rest on his laurels and end the summer with a bang after proving he is good enough to make the grade in county cricket with Yorkshire.

The 20-year-old batsman has scored runs in both the LV= County Championship and the Royal London one-day Cup during his breakthrough campaign, including a career best 99 in the four-day draw against Sussex at Arundel in mid-June.

He has also excelled in different situations, chasing runs for a declaration twice in the Championship, setting up the game at Sussex and attempting to drag his side out of a hole in a one-day game against Gloucestershire last week.

He scored 56 in a sixth-wicket partnership with Adil Rashid as the Vikings recovered from 45-5 to 174-5. Unfortunately, they still lost.

Ahead of tomorrow’s floodlit one-day clash with Northamptonshire at Wantage Road (2pm), Leaning said: “I’ve felt in a good bit of form recently, so it’s always nice to capitalise on that.

“I’ve still got a lot of learning to do but, as far as I’ve gone so far, I think I’ve held my own and proved that I’m good enough to play.

“My target at the start of the season was to try and establish myself in the first team.

“So far the season is going nicely. Obviously I still need to finish well and account for my own performances and game because it’s never a given that you’re going to play every week.”

Yorkshire have had a mixed start to their one-day campaign. They beat Lancashire last Saturday having posted 324-7 before slipping to a three-wicket defeat against Gloucestershire on Tuesday. “We’ve got one of the strongest sides in the country, there’s no doubt about that,” added Leaning.

“Gloucester was one of those bad days. It’s not every time you come and play and you click. I’m sure we’ll come back stronger. They just played a lot better than we did.”

Yorkshire will be without Jonny Bairstow for all three one-day fixtures this week – Worcestershire and Leicestershire on Thursday and Friday are the other two – because of England Lions duty. Andrew Hodd will replace him.

Meanwhile, Lightcliffe all-rounder Oliver Robinson will play second XI cricket for Hampshire against Middlesex this week after being sacked by Yorkshire last week.